Cardinal Golf Team Wins State Championship!

Three indivuduals earn medals

The Randolph High golf team finished off a stellar season in style on Thursday winning the schools first ever state golf team championship. Their team score of 666 was enough to place them first in the Class D state championships in Kearney's Meadowlark Hills golf course. In addition to the team title, three indivuduals were able to bring home medals for finishing in the top 15. Cade Linville followed up a day one 83 with an 86 on day two to finish in a tie for 15th place. Cade used consistent play over both days to earn his individual honor. Cade didn't make a score of more than a 6 on any of his 36 holes of competition and was able to close out the tournament with a scrambling par on the 18th hole after nearly sticking an approach shot from the right rough, he was able to get up and down to save par and post a solid score. Mason Stubbs fired a first round 81, and was able to back up that round with a 78 to finish in fourth place. Mason was able to overcome a cold putter early in the round on day two, to catch fire on the back nine holes going eagle-birdie on holes 12 and 13 on his way to a 35 for the back, and 78 total. Stubbs finished in 4th place indivudially. The next Cardinal to finish was Andrew Schnoor. Andrew played his best two rounds of the entire season at exactly the right time during the state tournament. His first round 78 put him only one shot back of the lead after day one, and in a tie for third place. Andrew used a consistent front nine, and a long birdie putt on the par three 15th to post a second round 77. His two day score of 155 put him into a sudden death playoff for the individual championship. On the playoff hole, Andrew's drive drifted to the right off the tee, took a big bounce off of the cart path, and settled into the rough. Andrew was able to put the next shot onto the middle of the green, but outside of the ball of Kyon Neal of McPherson County. Andrew's birdie putt rolled by the hole about 6 feet, and was unable to match the par putt of Neal, and had to settle for state runner-up. Senior Katie Fye also ended her career well with a 113 on day one and a two shot improvement on day two with a 111. Katie has been a four year player for the varsity team, and ends her career as a team state champion. The final Cardinal on the course was Logan Nordhues. Logan's first day was off to a promising start, but ended with trouble on the final hole leading to a first round 94. On day two Nordhues got off to a rocky start with an opening nine holes of 47, but was able to regain his form and close with a back nine 42. On the final hole, not knowing he needed only a score better than 8 to clinch the team title, Logan hit his third shot to 8 feet and was able to tap in for the championship winning 5.

In the team race, the Cardinals hot first day left them in good position, despite the local favorite and defending Class D runner-up Overton posting a season best 328. The Cardinals 336 left them in second position 8 shots back. That meant that day two became a virtual rematch of last year's state basketball championship game with Overton and Randolph going head to head. The Eagles weren't able to match their play of day one, ending with a day two score of 341, and opening the door for Randolph. The second day started slowly for the Cards after their first nine holes totalled 172, but they heated up on the second half with a scorching 158 to overtake Overton for the Title. Conference rivals Creighton put up an early charge on day two, moving up from fifth place after day one to finish in third place overall. The third team to qualify from the D-3 district was Osmond, the Tigers finished in 8th place out of the 15 qualifying teams. The RHS win caps a season where the team swept the Lewis and Clark Conference, D-3 district, and Class D state team championships. Coach Rob Engel said of his team, "I couldn't be happier for these kids, they worked hard all season, and always played for each other. We were always going for that team score, and it payed off in the end with a state championship."